I’m experimenting with a tweak to my weeknote format. And this time I’m wrapping four weeks up into one note, despite actually starting to write this one three weeks ago! #musttryharder

April has ended up being almost entirely dominated by work on the Council’s response to Covid-19. The pace has changed quite a bit though, and it now feels like we’re focusing on a longer term planning horizon (weeks and months, not hours and days) and the rhythm of work is a bit less frenetic. That doesn’t mean it feels less intense or challenging, but it does mean that I’ve felt like there’s been a little more space to think and work across teams to find answers to challenges.

New responsibilities

At the beginning of March I wrote about the exciting news that we are bringing the HackIT and Customer Services divisions together. Time has definitely flown since then, and last week we said (an online) farewell to Kay Brown as she began her retirement. It was lovely to see how Kay’s teams didn’t let lockdown stand in the way of making sure that she knows how much she’ll be missed. I loved seeing the videos and online messages for Kay that Carol and Tania brought together from across the teams.

I told Kay how impressed I’ve been by the way the services she’s led have responded to the disruption caused by Covid-19. As I mentioned in my last weeknote, their achievements are making a real difference for Hackney’s residents and businesses.

Our joint division is now responsible for:

Benefits & housing needs

Corporate Business Support

Council Tax & Business Rates

Customer contact and service centres

Facilities

Registrars

Technology and data (including ICT support for schools)

This covers some really important areas of the Council’s work, and I’m excited about what we will be able to do together.

I’m disappointed that I’ve not made anything like as much time as I had hoped to work with Bez, David, Jennifer and Matthew and start to learn more about their services. But I will be making sure that I use May to get back onto that. My immediate priorities are to set up the arrangements for our new joint management team and learn more about the plans and priorities that each of the services is working to deliver. Inevitably this will include considering how Covid-19 has impacted on those plans and thinking about things we will need to do differently as a result.

What do I think went well this month?

So much. Too much to include in one note.

Here are just a few examples of the many things that have impressed me from across our teams’ work.

Despite the enormous challenge of creating a new service from scratch, handling a complex and rapidly changing set of data, and the difficulty of securing sufficient food, the team who are coordinating the Council’s support for vulnerable people (working closely with a group of colleagues from across the Council) has made sure that everyone who’s told us they are at risk and unable to leave their home is receiving food and the other support they need. The team is still working hard to scale up and make sure that the service is sustainable for the longer term, so the job can’t be considered done. But the collaborative effort and commitment continues to be amazing.

Our teams are playing a vital role in many other ways too. Customers who have been affected by the impact of the Coronavirus emergency rely on our teams when they need help and advice, to book an urgent repair, or need help with financial support (we’ve paid out millions of £s in emergency relief already). The way that we are continuing to do this to a very high standard despite the huge changes in the way we all work is incredibly impressive. I’m enjoying seeing the updates across teams sharing their news and keeping in touch with one another.

The work to support people at risk of homelessness is more important now than ever, and as well as arranging emergency accommodation our teams have been working with colleagues to make sure that other needs such as food, health care and support are in hand.

And I was struck by the kind words that our Registrars team have received thanking them for the sensitive support they’ve given to bereaved families – despite not being able to sit with them face to face.

‘Behind the scenes’ our teams are playing a critical part in making sure that the Council keeps working well. I took time to read through the comments that were given in response to the recent ‘Pulse’ survey and these highlighted colleagues’ appreciation for the work that teams in Business Support, ICT and Facilities are doing and the way that they have responded to the demands of the current disruption. One example of this is the rapid introduction of virtual committee meetings so that the important work of democratic accountability can continue in spite of lockdown.

It’s impossible to cover everything here, but I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone for their hard work and commitment to Hackney.

What am I worried about, and what am I going to do about it?

One of the things at the top of my mind at the moment is sustainability. It’s increasingly clear that the impact of Covid-19 will not just be a matter of a few weeks, with things settling back to ‘normal’ shortly afterwards. The impacts on society, public services, the world’s economy, and people’s physical and mental health are going to be far reaching, and I’m not at all envious of the people who will be responsible for deciding when and how we should step down from the current ‘lock down’ restrictions. We are all going to have to make sure that we don’t wear ourselves out, take care to maintain our own personal resilience, and look after each others’ wellbeing.

Taking a break is an incredibly important part of this, especially now so many of us are working from home and not physically leaving work behind at the end of the day. I have taken a few days of annual leave over the last month and spent those playing Lego with my children, pottering around the house, and taking a few nice walks and cycle rides through some of our local open spaces (keeping a safe distance away from others while we did that). I have found this really restorative and made a conscious decision not to feel bad about the email that was accumulating while I’m offline. Taking a pause has really helped me to feel calm and more able to focus when I get back to work the following day.

Over the coming weeks I would strongly encourage everyone in our teams to make sure that they make time for a break and take the opportunity to recharge their batteries. Undoubtedly there will be urgent work that it is hard to step away from. But doing that in a managed way will be far better than finding that it all falls over as a result of exhaustion.

Something I’m learning

Some years ago a colleague pointed out to me that one of the joys of working in public service is that we aren’t in competition with one another. This means that we have a natural incentive to collaborate and learn from one another’s work, because we all serve residents who have very similar needs. For a long time I’ve thought that the greatest benefits are to be found in collaboration across councils, not large shared services.

But even if we’re not in competition with one another financially, there can still sometimes be a competition for the kudos of being seen to be ‘best’. I think that this can be an unhelpful distraction and that is why I’ve always wanted to make sure that as well as the HackIT team working in the open and celebrating our successes, we are also open about the challenges we are trying to solve and looking for opportunities where we can learn from our peers.

During the Covid-19 response I’ve been really pleased to see some great examples of how that mindset is helping us deliver at pace. This has included:

It feels like a lifetime ago that I was in Haringey’s civic offices being trained on the count process for what at that point were still the forthcoming elections for Mayor of London and the GLA. A couple of days later I caught up with Cate, Henry and Matthew for a DMT away day to look at our priorities for the months ahead. How time has flown.

A break from the norm

Within a few days I was self-isolating in our back bedroom, taking part in what was often 12 hours a day of video and phone calls, and working closely with the Mayor, Cabinet, Hackney’s senior leadership team and our Emergency Planning service helping to put in place the Council’s response to the rapidly changing Covid-19 emergency. It’s been the most intense working experience I’ve ever had, but I think also the most rewarding.

It happened that as well as having my role of corporate resilience lead for the Council, the announcement that the UK’s response to Covid-19 would move from ‘Contain’ to ‘Delay’ happened two hours after I began my shift as ‘on-call Gold’. As a result I stepped aside from all things ICT (being thankful that we have such a strong team that I could be 100% confident that things would be just fine) and focused entirely on working with colleagues as part of the wider corporate response.

The ‘new cough’ which I developed over the first weekend wasn’t particularly well timed *, but I found that I was more than busy enough not to notice that I was spending all day sat in the same room for a whole week!

* I ended up using a Google Form to keep a detailed record of every cough to help me decide whether it was ‘repetitive’ or ‘continuous’, and in the end I decided to err on the side of caution and follow the Public Health advice.

During this short period of time I’ve seen some of the very best of public service, and have witnessed local government throwing off it’s reputation for dusty Edwardian bureaucracy and responding with a pace and ambition that would do credit to an innovative start up.

Over the last three weeks we have:

Reconfigured our decision making and governance arrangements, bringing senior officers and our elected administration together as an effective team that is able to respond to the enormity of the challenge.

Switched the way we work, from organising based on service structures (aka ‘silos’) to focusing on the key outcomes that will be most important for our residents.

Shown how we can be decisive and swift in our actions, putting in place the arrangements needed to sustain critical services in these most turbulent of times.

Been respectful of one another’s expertise, making sure that a more directive style doesn’t mean we forget to listen and act thoughtfully.

Come together with the unions who represent our staff groups to make sure that we are listening to their concerns, explaining our decisions and the things we are still thinking through, and working together well.

Worked closely with our partners and built on the Council’s strong relationships with other public services, the voluntary sector, community groups and business to put a genuinely partnership response in place.

Kept key services open, even when that was hard to do. I’m proud that Hackney’s parks remain open, with strong messages about social distancing – a vital lifeline for the thousands of people who don’t have outside space at home **. And many of our teams continue to come into work, despite deep personal anxiety, because residents depend on the work they do and their jobs can’t be done from home.

Created entirely new services in a matter of days, working closely with our partners in the voluntary sector to set up arrangements to make sure that people who are unable to get food get essentials delivered.

Embraced new technology so that we can continue to work effectively across the organisation despite most of our offices being closed. I will never forget how quickly we brought together the senior leadership team and our Borough Emergency Control Centre on video link from multiple locations to set our strategy in response to the ‘stay at home’ advice after the Prime Minister’s announcement two weeks ago.

I’d be dishonest if I didn’t acknowledge that there have been moments where I’ve felt frustrated or uncertain about how I should respond to an issue. And some things which felt obvious to me have ended up needing more time and discussion that I’d have liked. But across the board I think we can all hold our heads up high and be enormously proud of how effectively Hackney has risen to the challenge.

I’ve also found the support and sharing with peers over the last few weeks incredibly valuable. It’s been brilliant to see how people have come together across public services to work together on this shared challenge. The time we’ve all spent building these relationships is paying back many times over.

Looking forward we will hopefully be turning our minds to the recovery phase some time soon. But there are lots of aspects of how we are working now that I hope we don’t change. There’s a pace and focus that I think will continue to be enormously valuable, even when the current crisis is behind us. But for now we need to make sure we are taking care of one another, supporting our community, and recognising the personal tragedies that Covid-19 is bringing to so many.

The work that our Benefits & Housing Needs service have done to find safe housing for rough sleepers and people in shelters, and also their work together with colleagues in Adults’ Social Care to set up the accommodation needed to support the accelerated discharge from hospital that will be a vital part of the NHS’s ability to respond to Covid-19.

Corporate Business Support’s continued delivery of their services, including handling post from residents who need the Council’s support.

The amazing efforts of the customer contact teams, who have maintained high quality service delivery despite the disruption caused by relocating to home based working in next to no time.

The Registrar’s team are supporting bereaved families with sensitivity, despite not being able to offer their normal service because of the need for social distancing.

The speed with which the Revenues teams have moved to make sure that urgent payments and support are issued to businesses and people who are being affected by the economic impact of Covid-19.

Every one of these services is a frontline service. Even if their work is less immediately visible to the layperson.

Something I’m learning

Where to begin…? Over three very intense weeks I have learned huge amounts about our organisation, the ways that the Council can help our community, leadership, and what we are capable of together when we are presented with a challenge.

But the most important thing I’ve learned is to remember that I can only be effective if I remember to take time to breathe. There have been several moments when I realised that I would not be doing my job well if I didn’t take a pause to step back, and I took a half-day off on Thursday and have booked a few more days off over the next fortnight. The adrenaline rush of getting stuff done and feeling part of something important has been energising and rewarding. But we are going to have to maintain this for some while yet and it’s essential that we all pace ourselves.

Bringing Customer Services and HackIT together

On Friday we announced that the HackIT division and the Customer Services division (which includes Benefits & Housing Needs, Customer & Corporate Services, Registrars, and Revenues) will be coming together at the end of April when the current Director of Customer Services, Kay Brown, retires. Kay will be a tough act to follow and under her leadership her services have played a really important part in Hackney’s impressive journey of improvement.

I’m incredibly excited about the potential this offers. At Thursday’s strategy show & tell Matthew talked through the awesome work that we’ve been doing with the Benefits & Housing Needs teams (along with our partners FutureGov and Made Tech) to redesign the way that the Council helps people who are at risk of homelessness. This is a great example of how by working closely together we can make a real difference for our residents.

Matthew will be taking interim responsibility for the Customer & Corporate Services teams along with the Digital & Data teams. The opportunity presented by bringing together the teams whose work is closest to our residents along with the skills that we’ve been growing for using technology, data and digital design skills to meet users’ needs is enormous. I think these changes offer a real opportunity for us to set new standards for local public services and I’m really looking forward to seeing what our teams can achieve together.

Matthew and I are planning to use our strategy show & tell on 2 April to give an update on the preparations we’re making to ensure an effective transition. I’ve also set aside some times for a coffee & chat with anyone who’d like to talk through any questions. Those are:

Tues 10 March, 11am – 12pm (4th floor stand up area)

Mon 16 March, 9am – 10am (4th floor stand up area)

Thurs 26 March, 9am – 10am (4th floor stand up area)

Mon 30 March, 1pm – 2pm (4th floor stand up area)

Please pop along with any questions that you’d like to talk through!

Catching up with LOTI’s progress

On Wednesday morning I headed over to London Bridge to be part of the LOTI Advisory Panel. This is the senior group responsible for making sure that LOTI is meeting the boroughs’ aspirations, and includes our Mayor in his role as Digital Champion for London Councils.

We had a very useful discussion. Eddie started by reflecting on the progress that’s been made so far and what LOTI expects to have achieved by the time it reaches its first anniversary in July. Lots of this is ‘behind the scenes’ work, reflecting the deliberate decision to focus on work that will help us to #fixthepumbing. I’m pleased at the head of steam that LOTI is beginning to develop. Progress made already includes:

A shared approach for information governance and responsible data sharing, which we hope will help us crack one of the biggest challenges for designing services across organisational boundaries

Laying foundations that could help us reshape the market for the technology and data products we need, including the City Tools platform and work on collaborative approaches to supplier management

Shared data projects designed to help improve services that Londoners rely on

It’s going to be exciting to be part of bringing those to fruition over the next few months!

Eddie (the Director of LOTI) also set the scene for LOTI’s focus as we look ahead to the second year. We talked through opportunities to build on the year one work and take on shared experiments for innovating in the way that services are delivered in a number of areas. There’ll be more work needed to firm up the plans, but it looks like it has the potential to be a great year! If you’re not already following the LOTI weeknotes I strongly recommend that you fix that without delay.

I also…

Had a really good catch up with Bertie (ICT manager for the Hackney Learning Trust) where we discussed ways that we could develop our thinking for supporting digital inclusion in Hackney, building on the existing services that we offer to schools in the borough. Bertie’s been talking with the Community Library Service (see weeknotes passim) and looking at ways we can work together to help housebound residents explore opportunities to get online.

Caught up with finance colleagues to scope the work we need to do to bring the budgets together as part of joining our team up with the Hackney Learning Trust ICT service.

Took part in the Hackney Management Team’s six-monthly GOLD group meeting, where we reflected on the Council’s response to major incidents over the last six months. There were lots of very positive examples of where Hackney’s long-standing commitment to effective emergency planning has helped our residents when incidents like fires and major floods have happened. We also looked through the preparations for our response to the current COVID-19 concerns (which include very flexible facilities for business continuity as a result of the work we’ve done in the HackIT team to deliver workplace technology that can be accessed easily from any device, anywhere, any time).

Joined the very helpful walk through the financial year-end closedown arrangements that Jenny from finance tan, where she set out the key tasks that cost centre managers will need to carry out to make sure that our year-end accounts are accurate.

Met with Ian (my boss) and Stuart (from HR) to walk through the ways that the HR dashboards developed by our Data & Insight team can help senior managers make sure that they have a clear picture of people management across their services.

Was pleased to finish off Friday with a hint of spring emerging after what felt like a week of endless rain.

Something I’m learning

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I will need to learn and do differently as the changes I mentioned above come into place. I’m really excited about the opportunity to learn more about new areas of the Council’s work, and I’m thinking about the ways I will need to change how I work to make sure that I’m supporting the new wider service team effectively. I suspect that there will be lots to share in this section of my weeknote over the coming months.

Berlin

The week before last was an opportunity to visit Berlin (catching up with friends who now live there). I was really impressed with the city. It has many complex histories, and as well as keeping a history geek like me well occupied I thought that the way much of that was marked was very impressive – neither sensationalist nor ducking the harder issues.

I’m definitely keen to visit again and have time to find out more. I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t visited before.

Customer Services steering group

On Tuesday we met with Cabinet Members and senior managers from several services for our latest Customer Services steering group meeting. I’m pleased with how this is developing, with a clear focus on how we can design services to meet complex needs, not just delivering ‘channel shift’ (an area where Hackney has already made significant progress).

I also…

Met up with colleagues from a council in Northern Ireland who visited HackIT Towers for a chat about the work we’re doing and to share experiences. It was great to hear that they’d found our blog useful reading and we had lots in common in terms of our aspirations for ways that technology and data can improve services for citizens.

Had a really good walk through the progress so far with OneCase (the new system for managing Complaints, Freedom of Information requests, Member Enquiries and Subject Access Requests which will be rolling out soon) which was delivered by Emma. While we’re having to work within the constraints of the ‘off the shelf’ system that we’ll be using, I was really encouraged to see how carefully the team is thinking about the user experience and also the collaborative work that’s taking place to make sure that the roll out goes well.

Spent some time with finance colleagues looking at how we can develop our approach for building the capacity we need to meet services’ demands while also making sure that we’re continuing to build a sustainable team (including not becoming too reliant on agency staffing) and managing financial risk. We’ll be following that up once Cate’s back to make sure we have a model in place that can be used consistently across our service.

Had a useful conversation with a colleague at another council to talk through the opportunity to help them with a peer review they’re planning. I think that this offers as much of an opportunity to learn from others as it is to share from our own experience in Hackney.

Joined colleagues from Children’s & Families Services as part of the work they’re doing to develop their strategic focus for the year ahead.

Something I’m learning

I *must* remember to book a clear day after I return from leave to give myself time to get back up to speed with things. I failed to do that this time and I’m wishing I had… 😣

A short note written during a pause from packing bags ahead of a few days away.

Sharing our digital thinking with councillors

On Friday the Mayor and I co-delivered a talk and Q&A about Hackney’s digital journey at a ‘digital masterclass’ event for councillors from across the country, organised by the Local Government Association. It was the second time we’ve done this and I found it interesting to talk about digital from the perspective of both an elected Mayor and a Council officer.

Some of the key things we talked about included:

‘Digital’ is an important lever of change, not just e-forms. We shared how projects like Spacebank and our work on connectivity are using public assets to help our communities. And we also talked about how technology and data are helping support people at risk of homelessness.

Growing digital skills is about changing the market, not just competing. The councillors at the event were really interested in our digital apprenticeship programme and we encouraged them to be bold in their approach to this (and also shared Cate’s excellent ‘How to HackIT’ guide).

Why not having a separate ‘digital strategy’ is important, so that technology and data are recognised as being core components of service strategies, not sidelined as a ‘techie’ thing.

The importance of focusing on end-to-end services, making sure that our measures, policies and processes don’t create unhelpful barriers, friction and unintended problems for our users.

How designing governance to enable delivery at pace means that we need to challenge many of our existing habits. As part of this I noted how much more useful I find project weeknotes and show & tells than traditional highlight reports and project boards.

And we also reflected on how important it is to take a long-term view, recognising that the work we’re doing now is only made possible by the hard work that was put in over previous years to get the basics of our service model and infrastructure right.

I also…

Joined the NHS London digital transformation portfolio board for the first time. There were quite a few faces I recognised on the group and I continue to be impressed at the hard work that’s taking place across our region to join up health and care data. I suggested that we might want to consider whether we’re making sufficient space in the agenda for looking at ways we might understand end-users’ needs and explore new ideas (I think there is lots of opportunity to build on the work that’s already taking place to #fixtheplumbing and am keen to see how the approaches we’re taking in HackIT might help with this).

Had a couple of useful DMT sessions looking at some of the OKRs we’re focusing on, including getting an update from Henry on the engagement that he’s leading with the finance systems and HLT ICT teams as part of the work we’re doing to integrate our teams.

Had a quick catch up with Jenny from Finance to check in on our budget forecast for the year. This is much improved from ten months ago and reflects the hard work that’s taken place across our team to make sure that we’re managing our money well.

Had my regular 221 meeting with the Mayor and Ian (my boss). I talked through the work we’re doing to design MOKRs to organise our work, gave some updates on the progress across the work we’re delivering and also a summary of on our service performance and user satisfaction feedback. It was also good to have Susan join us as part of some shadowing we’ve arranged.

Had my last swimming lesson. I’ve found this really useful and might do a further series later in the year. I’m also wondering whether I can be inspired by Cate’s example and do some early morning swims at London Fields Lido…

Something I’m learning

This weekend I was amused by this small example of data security that hasn’t been thought through very well. This large retailer appears to code the price of their ‘sold by weight’ food into the barcode for each pack, in plain text. I didn’t take advantage of it, but simply choosing the ‘key in code’ option at the self-service tills and then changing characters 9 to 12 in the barcode lets you name your own price!

I thought it was a useful reminder of how an approach that might initially appear to be an easy way to get something done can leave a business exposed to risk.

Name your price!

(I’m taking a break this week, so my next weeknote will arrive in w/c 2 March)

Getting together with peers

On Friday, Matthew and I joined a group of great people from several councils to compare notes from our digital journeys, share the challenges we’re grappling with and think about ways we can support one another. The idea for the meet up was sparked by Paul Brewer at Adur & Worthing and the group represented councils stretching from the Channel coast up to the northern borders.

Making sure that we continue to recruit and develop a great team

At Thursday’s HackIT strategy show & tell I talked about the work we’re doing to update the market supplements that we use to make sure that we are continuing to develop a great team in HackIT. We want roles in our team to be opportunities to:

Make a real difference for our residents

Develop your skills and career

Work in an energetic and ambitious team, and be involved in fun, exciting and rewarding work

I also…

Joined Henry and David (our Director of Housing) for our ‘Digital quarterly’ meeting with the Mayor, Cllr McKenzie and Cllr Nicholson. Our discussion focused on the progress that’s being made with the digital connectivity work which Henry summarised in his weeknote last week. I’m excited by this work because it’s a real opportunity for Hackney to use assets that the Council owns to encourage new connectivity providers into our borough and address the shortcomings of existing provision – which is a source of significant frustration for many of our residents.

Caught up with Lucy and a colleague in our Public Health team to learn more about the work they’re doing to use data to help improve the health and wellbeing of residents of the City and Hackney.

Had a good catch up with Lucy and Sarah, our Director of Children’s and Families Services, to talk through ways that we might help develop our support for the service.

Went to the Senior Managers Network meeting, where we heard from Tim (our Chief Exec) about the work he’s doing to review the Council’s senior management arrangements following the recent voluntary redundancy scheme and also an update on the work that’s taking place to promote Hackney as a great place to work and develop your career.

Was pleased with the pace that’s developing with the integration of the Hackney Learning Trust ICT team and the HackIT team. This week Bertie (HLT’s Head of ICT) joined us at our HackIT DMT meeting and I went along to the first meeting of the Education Change Programme Board, where we checked on progress across the programme of work that’s taking place to bring finance and ICT support for education in Hackney closer to the Council’s core services.

Something I’m learning

I’m taking a few days off over half term. I’m trying to decide how best to fix my backlog of stuff ahead of that – which is going to take some fairly ruthless prioritisation….!

Learning more about our support for people at risk of homelessness

In last week’s note I wrote about the rough sleeper count that I took part in the previous week. To follow that up, on Wednesday I joined nine other colleagues for a ‘meet the service’ day where we were taken through other areas of the work that colleagues in the Benefits & Housing Needs service do. It’s awesome that the service makes the time to do this – the main purpose being to help colleagues from across other Council services think about how their teams’ work can contribute towards reducing the risk of people becoming homeless in Hackney.

We learned that Hackney is very unusual in having brought benefits and housing needs together in a single team. This makes it easier for the teams to work in an integrated way and we were given lots of examples of how they are able to work with residents to help them manage debt and guide them towards support such as financial advice, employment support and health services. As with the colleagues I met when I joined the rough sleeper count, I was impressed by the compassion that the team showed for the people they support, even when it isn’t easy for them to meet their needs.

Something that stuck with me is how long term ‘temporary accommodation’ often is. It’s not unusual for individuals and families to be in temporary housing for ten years or more, and from visiting one of our hostels as part of the day it was evident that this is far from a low cost or comfortable option for those people. Many areas of London have seen big increases in the cost of housing and reduced availability of social housing, but the dramatic changes in Hackney’s rental market mean that there are also very few affordable rented options available through private landlords, so the team have to work incredibly hard to find suitable accommodation and there is often a very long wait. Sometimes families are offered homes outside of London, but this can be very difficult for them given family ties, school places and work in Hackney. The day gave me a really valuable insight into the team’s work and respect for what they do at the sharp end of many of society’s most challenging issues.

I’m pleased that our teams in HackIT have been working with the Benefits & Housing Needs service to help them with this important work. Our work together in preparing for the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act a couple of years ago was an important first step, which has made the process of assessing people’s needs much more efficient and compassionate. And this is now being taken further through the service redesign work that is being delivered in partnership with FutureGov and Made Tech. Projects such as Single View are already showing real promise, helping to reduce the time it takes to look up information across multiple systems by 10 – 25 minutes per case.

LOTI update

I finished the week by joining other CIOs from the LOTI councils for our regular LOTI member meeting. I thought that this was the best meeting yet, with a good showing from across the councils. It was also great to have new faces joining the team, with Kit and Steve who have recently started as the technology and data leads for Greenwich and Kingston | Sutton coming to their first LOTI meeting. We covered a range of topics including data analytics projects, getting the most out of our supplier relationships and reflecting on what LOTI will have achieved when it reaches its first anniversary in the summer.

I also…

Had a good planning meeting with Katharine, Mac, Nick and Tom, making sure that we’re well prepared for the quarterly Information Governance Group meeting which is due in a few weeks time.

Was very impressed with the progress that Tony has made working with finance colleagues to make sure that the Print Unit is in a sustainable financial position. What had been reported as a significant shortfall at the start of the year is now a balanced budget and Tony’s identified several good ideas for ways we can develop the service further and continue to provide high quality, good value print services for Hackney.

Went with Lucy and Meg to join the regular ‘IT enabler’ board meeting, where we reviewed the progress of the technology and data elements of health and social care integration across the City and Hackney.

Chaired the Council’s corporate resilience group, which was a useful opportunity to reflect on the reviews of the Council’s responses to a couple of recent major incidents (a fire and a major flood). Teams from across the Council’s services did a great job responding to the incidents, making sure that residents were supported and keeping focus on the longer term recovery work. It was encouraging to see how the Council is able to make a difference for our local community.

Had a really good meeting with Kit, Cate and Eddie at the start of the day on Friday, talking through ways that we could link up OneTeamGov and LOTI as part of building the community of people working to transform local public services in London.

Felt like I had a mini-breakthrough in my swimming lesson when there was a moment when it actually felt like my limbs were working together to move me through the water with reasonable grace. This might not have been apparent to anyone watching, but I felt encouraged nonetheless.

Something I’m learning

On Tuesday night I relearned how to change tyres on a bike (it’s a very long time since I last did that). I was pleased to find that I managed to remember how to do it and even more pleased to find that my wheels stayed on and the tyres stayed inflated when I rode to work the next morning. I’m now hoping that the new tyres will be more robust and I don’t have a repeat of last Monday morning’s puncture…